By Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

Published 10:23 pm, Monday, February 25, 2013

ALBANY — County Executive Dan McCoy's office says it has finally closed the books on talks with the firm bidding to take over the county nursing home.

County Attorney Thomas Marcelle told lawmakers Monday that McCoy won't make any more changes to the proposal to privatize the 250-bed facility, officially leaving the pact in the hands of the still-skeptical legislature.

"The parties are finished negotiating," Marcelle told the legislature's Elder Care Committee, one of two vetting the controversial plan to lease the nursing home to private firm Upstate Service Group for at least 10 years.

While drafts of the proposal have been circulating since late last year, the terms of the pact evolved as McCoy's administration held a handful of lengthy question-and-answer sessions with lawmakers — a level of cooperation with the legislative branch that his aides have called unprecedented.

Marcelle's declaration that the terms are now final came as legislators spent 90 minutes questioning Peter Millock, the outside attorney McCoy hired in November to help craft the agreement — a man legislative leaders say they had no idea was working for the county until McCoy revealed it in a press release earlier this month.

When legislature Chairman Shawn Morse, who has been wary of the privatization plan, queried Millock on how much his services would cost the county, Marcelle initially sought to limit the questioning to the attorney's expertise in health care and his work on the negotiations.

Millock's hiring has become yet another a sore point in the already sensitive relationship between McCoy and his former colleagues in the legislature when it comes to the nursing home plan. Lawmakers have voiced annoyance not only at being left in the dark about his work but also because his contract was never approved by the Contract Administration Board, a three-member panel that is supposed to sign off on any contracts over $20,000.

Millock ultimately told lawmakers he has billed the county for about $36,000 so far, with an additional $2,500 to $3,000 for February still to come.

McCoy's spokeswoman, Mary Rozak, said because the contract with Millock's firm, Nixon Peabody, was initially for less than $20,000, it need not have been approved by the board, even though it is has now nearly doubled that benchmark.

Still, thornier issues remain. Lawmakers are intent on meeting with representatives of USG again to discuss the fates of the nursing home's more than 300 workers.